IRC/Stalkwords

This page lists standardised keywords that can be spoken on IRC to immediately alert certain groups of users, such as administrators or stewards, present in the channel. This greatly enhances chances of being promptly processed over the previous method, which requires that the relevant users notice the request with no special notification. However, please only use these stalkwords in case of emergency, something that must be taken care of quickly, liberal use of these words may result in quieting or banning.

To simplify multilingual usage, stalkwords are constructed in a standardised format: !<group>@<language code><short project suffix>. For example, administrators on the English Wikipedia can be alerted with !admin@enpedia.

Alternatively, the standard database name can be used. These are constructed in a similar manner (<lang><project>), but use the full project name (with the exception that Wikipedia is shortened to wiki). For example, administrators on the English Wikipedia can be alerted with !admin@enwiki.

It is unclear which method of constructing stalkwords is more widely used. Check the channel's /topic for guidance - the stalkword used is often listed there.

ChatZilla has a /stalk command specifically for this task. Type "/stalk someword" to be alerted whenever someone says someword. You can list current stalkwords by typing "/stalk" without a parameter, or stop stalking a word by typing "/unstalk someword". You can also edit the list through the preferences: ChatZilla > Preferences > Global settings > Lists > Stalk words.

In Colloquy, you can create a list of stalk words using the "Alerts" section of the preferences window (Command-,). Add your words separated by spaces and enclosed in forward slashes, for example, as /!admin/ /jimbo/. This will highlight the strings "!admin" and "jimbo" whenever they appear in the text, regardless of context.

Irssi has a /hilight command specifically for this task. Type "/hilight someword" to be alerted whenever someone says someword. If this does not work, try activating the feature by typing "/set hilight on". You can stop stalking a word by typing "/dehilight someword". See the documentation for more advanced usage.

Regex: !admin(@en(pedia|wiki)?)?(\s|$) will hilight on !admin, !admin@en, !admin@enwiki, !admin@enpedia. It's a fairly simple regex that can be adapted to wherever you're an admin. The final question mark can be omitted if you only want to watch for "!admin" alone in specific channels (see documentation).

! and @ (at least) break highlight words: any non alpha character with the exception of -[]{}`\^_| are considered non word characters (due to the history of IRC). There is a perl script you can use to get regex stalkwords which gets around this limitation.

LimeChat lets you edit the list of stalk words in the preferences: LimeChat > Preferences > Highlight. You may choose between partial and exact matching for the highlight. You may also edit a list of "dislike" words. A dedicated checkbox allows you to highlight your nickname without explicitly listing it in the highlight list. Another checkbox allows you to highlight the whole line in case of matching.